2016.04.04 Dear friend. You're gone, never to return. Unexpected and unannounced you left your dear wife and children behind. And the rest of us. It is a mistake, right? Wim, I love you. Max.'
Wim Brands was a much loved Dutch television & radio presenter and poet.

Source: Drawing for the obituary card for my dear friend Wim Brands who died on 4 April 2016.

20.08.2015 Fiscal quirks 6: Danish tax on saturated fat. The tax on saturated fats was meant to fight obesity. A typical example of a tax the government wants to influence the behavior of citizens with, in this case to improve health. In that regard, it is nice that the tax was introduced by a center-right government and was abolished by a center-left government. Left often gets accused of patronizing.

14.08.2015 Fiscal quirks 5: French tax on table football costs more than it benefits. The French tax regulator, the Inspection Générale des Finances, counted last year 192 taxes on businesses that annually generate less than €150 million. The Inspection advised the government abolish between 90 and 120 of these small taxes. Some cost more than they produce, the inspection finds, such as taxes on pinball machines and table football.

06.08.2015 Fiscal quirks 4: Taxes cast shadows over Spanish solar energy. If it is up to the Spanish Government, the sun won’t rise no longer free for Spaniards who have solar panels installed on the roof of their home or in their backyard. Rajoy's government wants to tax the abundant sunshine in Spain.

30.07.2015 Fiscal quirks 3: UK beer tax fills the public treasury. Even without a Brexit Britons go their own way with tax rules that the rest of Europe also just has to swallow. The beer tax has lead to a big fuss in their own country.

27.07.2015 Fiscal quirks 2: Belgian taxes, welcome to Absurdistan. The unvarnished opinion of Belgians about their tax system sometimes doesn't come from to their ambivalent attitude towards their national government. The European Commission has said for years that the Belgian taxes are due for a major overhaul. And though Flemish and Walloon politicians endorse the need for tax reform, little will happen.

11.07.2015 Make No Mistake – Europe Is At War Again. The main condition that drives to war is that both sides of a conflict are utterly convinced of their own moral righteousness and of the moral turpitude of the opposing side. These conditions have existed between Greece and Europe for some time and Greece is now at war with the rest of Europe.

To day or not today #135. Productivity of companies and government must increase considerably in order to maintain our prosperity. The desirability of growth is increasingly questioned. Does more prosperity makes us happier? Aren’t we outgrowing the earth? Growth is not an end by itself. But that doesn't make growth yet superfluous.

To day or not to day #134. Fear of endless stagnation of the economy in the United States and Europe is unjustified. We do not want to accept that recovery from financial crisis takes time and are trying to force demand.
There is no reason to expect that in coming decades increased productivity in western world suddenly would disappear.

To day or not to day #132: Last week I was in London to take a look at the latest trends. London is relevant because there are so many coming together. You can see it by the street art. In the deprived neighborhoods where artists live in cheap rental housing, lots of extraordinary things arise.

To day or not to day #131: The Young City. There are increasingly more children in the cities. Some young families are 'stuck' in their home town because they can’t fund a house in the suburbs, but many deliberately choose to raise their children in the city.

To day or not to day #130: On 13 May, the EU Court in Luxembourg ruled that Google can be obliged not to refer to sites with private sensitive information. Even if the information is quite true, someone who finds it harmful may ask Google not to show the link to the source. Information exists only when it is found, is the idea.

To day or not to day #129: Price System Care Authority (NZa) is unworkable - NZa failed year in year out. First by a former politician, and now four years by an ex-civil servant. Not what a complicated industry needs. The Parliament should not cheaply blame the insurers, but first appoint professional management to the NZa and demand that at the end of 2014 the claim system meets three requirements: timely disclosure of contracts, a reliable open ended arrangement and a price list, so hospitals and insurers can link the invoice to the report on discharge of the patient.

To day or not to day #128: Preparing The Netherlands for an successful entrepreneurial future - EDUCATION: Teacher must be a blog. Investing does not mean so much raise the salaries, but rather to connect education to the digital age - LABOUR: Exit jar by resignation or departure. The exit rules should simplify, to enable smaller companies to hire people easily - TOGETHER/SHARE: By chance found knowledge too often remains unused because it is not a core domain of a large corporation. That, and other databases, may be of good use to start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises to improve the world - MENTALITY: A little less envy culture.

To day or not to day #127: Fruitful association with reality requires more than thinking in models - the metaphor is by Walter Lippman, one of the greatest American journalists from the prewar years: A journalist is like a visitor from a play which regales when the piece has already started and leaves before the curtain falls. Therefore, it requires quite a bit of a journalist, given the sliding panels, to bring coherent, successful and impressive messages about what is happening on the stage of everyday life.

To day or not to day #126: Shack Lust - The role of a party in the chain (distributor) is taken over by a player in the chain itself (producer). The distance between the consumer and the producer is shorter. The manufacturer leaves no means untouched to ensure that they themselves are not obsolete by making others redundant. Shack Lust.

To day or not to day #125: The Rotterdam security paradox - although everything is being done to make the city safer, discontent only increases. The fixation on security and especially the way it problematizes and physically invades the public space seems to have the opposite effect. Maybe it's time once another question to ask: how safe do we actually want to be?

To day or not to day #123: Should we actually retire? - We need to think about our retirement in a more fundamental way. Because the pension is too early for one, for the other too late and only for a few just in time.

To day or not to day #122: Freer thinking about Europe - The euro has survived the crisis, but doubts about the viability of the currency union continue. Is muddling now the only option or the time is ripe for bold vistas?

To day or not to day #121: Rotterdam. In recent years, much has happened in the city of Rotterdam. Good things, beautiful things, big things and also very small. Clearly visible on the river and hidden deep in the neighbourhoods.

To day or not to day # 120: It's not so easy to translate the concept of "empowerment" into Dutch. It has everything to do with "enable": stronger, giving opportunities to do something, to eliminate a disadvantage. Employee empowerment is mentioned in the annual letter from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to its shareholders.

To day or not to day # 119: Increase the interest rate before a new bubble will affect the economy - Low interest rates were necessary to keep the financial system running. Now the disadvantages outweigh the temporary benefits to a pampered banking sector. Which has already helped enough.

To day or not to day #118: Education as safety issue: we must come in action to defeat extremism - The battle of the 21st century against the blind hatred of dissenters. We can only win if we manage to take away the causes and the horrible consequence.

Source: Het Financieele dagblad, Saturday 25 January 2014. Essay by Tony Blair (former Prime Minister of Great Britain and special envoy of the Middle East Quartet of the UN, U.S., EU and Russia

To day or not to day #117: In the Netherlands, water has unconsciously - and wrongly - become a stranger. Water is the rejected child in the Netherlands. It was barely or not at all on the agenda at the recent local elections. But the water issue is too big and too urgent to ignore.

To day or not to day #116: The Socialist and Liberal are liberated from Babylon: the concept of solidarity unraveled - Thinking about the future of the welfare state would benefit from a clearer interpretation of the concept of solidarity. Especially in a country of coalitions a common language is desired.

To day or not to day #115: In the Netherlands, the working poor pay taxes for the middle classes - To generate more wealth in the Netherlands, the net earnings of the working poor should be increased compared to middle-income groups and beneficiaries.

To day or not to day #114: Loser, fagot, dirty cop, ant fucker. When are words insulting? - A few years ago, the court ruled that journalist Jort Kelder could call lawyer Bram Moszkowicz a 'mafia friend'. But on appeal this phrase was judged to be 'unnecessarily offensive'. What about offensive words? Where are the limits?

To day or not to day #112: Obama's America will be become more socially equated by erosion of middle class. Social decline in the U.S. is today more real than social rise. And for the elderly which should earn an extra, there will not even a paper route anymore soon, because the demise of printed media.

To day or not to day #111: Death to Machines? - There will still be activities that require human skills, and these skills can be improved. But the more computers can do, the less humans need to do. The prospect of the 'abridgement of labour' should fill us with hope rather than foreboding. But, in our kind of society, there are no mechanisms for converting redundancy into leisure.

Source: Het Financieele dagblad, Saturday 8 March 2014. Essay by Robert Skidelsky, a member of the British House of Lords, is Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University.

To day or not to day #109: The Netherlands in transition: old order vs. new order - The new economy is driven by disruptive technological breakthroughs. Technologies such as cloud technology, big data, robotics, 3D printing, clean energy, energy storage and bio-chemistry change the ways of production, distribution and storage.

To day or not to day #108: City councils must tame the beast that is called inter-municipal cooperation - The more tasks municipalities get the more powerless the council is. The tasks are so complex that they allow municipalities to implement them through partnerships. The inadequate control and lack of democratic legitimation is taken for granted.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday 8 February 2014. Essay by Kirsten Veldhuijzen (advisor Council for Public Board and Council for the financial ratios) and Friso de Zeeuw (Practice Professor of Urban Area TU Delft and New Director Developing Markets Fund)

To day or not to day #107: New voting protocol in 2014, stronger Euro countries within the European Union - A core Europe will emerge, formed by the Euro countries in the future. This will not lead necessary to more Europe, but possibly up to a coherent Europe.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday 1 February 2014. Essay by Marc Jorna (Department at the European Commission, legal adviser to the Dutch Permanent Representation in Brussels)

Happy Birthday Max Kisman! To day or not to day #61 (#106) - Monkey: What do you carry in your hands, mister? Me: A one and a six, making it sixty-one. Monkey: If you change position or orientation, it will give you 91! Would you like that? Me: You are a wise Monkey. But, can I start doing that tomorrow?

To day or not to day #105: Jubilant forecasts for stocks ignore the large uncertainties in the global economy - despite moderate economic growth in the euro zone, investors are very enthusiastic about stocks. The market is crisis-fatigued. But the risks are still life-size.

To day or not to day #104: The past 25 years show that the call for more business ethics has led to conformism, ticking off boxes and calculating behaviour in firms. Time for a totally different approach to business ethics.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday 11 January 2014. Essay by Muel Kaptein, professor of Business Ethics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

To day or not to day #103: China swings between dream and reality - the gap between reality and the ambitions of China is big. If the country fails to send its development on a sustainable track, instability threatens in various areas (animated version).

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday 4 January 2014. Essay by Jonathan Holslag (International Politics, Free University of Brussels). Author of "The Power of Paradise: How Europe can survive in the Asian century.

To day or not to day #102: Society changes in spurts. Changes in basic conditions trigger instability of the system. It will be restless, but a new reality will come. There is not much else to do but let time do its work. The antidote consists mainly of a lot of laughing at the absurdity of everyday life, combined with a healthy dose of perspective and some self-control.

To day or not to day #101: People become increasingly angry at everything and everyone. Swearing, cursing, demonizing and death threats. They refuse to accept a decline in wealth and the fact that life brings does not only bring joy.

To day or not to day #98: When winds of change are blowing, some build walls, others build windmills - Companies that have responded to economic and social changes have hardly suffered negative consequences of the crisis. They are prepared for the new realities, and will do better than others.

To day or not to day #97: Spinoza's lessons for a sustainable economy - Dutch philosopher Spinoza saw people for what they are, not what they are supposed to be according to fictitious and normative criteria. By imposing codes of conduct, and the introduction of bureaucracy and stifling regulations, the carpet is rolled out for the rise of dehumanizing transactions.

To day or not to day #95: 'Blue Economy'. In system-thinking in the spatial sector the colour for sustainability is changing from green to blue. Where the Green economy was about grants and asked people to pay more for less return, the Blue Economy is smarter, using local materials, energy, labor and natural techniques. Linear processes are changing into circular processes.

To day or not to day #95: Acknowledge, forgive, make a new start - The Bank, Soccer and the Catholic Church need to reconnect with society again. The belly has its agenda, the head offers the solution, but the heart has to address it to people. What is necessary is a right balance between social values, a business organization and functioning governance.

To day or not to day #94: Raise the interest rates before a new bubble will affect the economy - Low interest rates were necessary to keep the financial system running. Now the disadvantages outweigh the temporary benefits for a pampered banking sector. Which has already supported enough.

To day or not to day #93: It seems that the long - deceased Cardinal Richelieu manages the European crisis - Cautious recovery in the euro area could be killed by politicians that shy away from reform, anti-European populists and stress test for banks.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday 7 December 2013. Essay by Andy Langenkamp, political analyst at ICC and ECR Research

To day or not to day #92: Construction now has opportunities for grabs – The current crisis is affecting the construction sector extremely hard. At the same time, the market opportunities for living, working and mobility are enormous. In order to seize them, the sector has to move and a major transformation is necessary.

To day or not to day #89: Demolition to grow - Cuts, unprecedented fast and large-scale sales of real estate, and decentralization of public tasks threaten the position of the historic Empire Headquarters. Against this background, the city will have to reconsider its position within the Dutch urban landscape.

To day or not to day #88: Assad is stronger now he is the only one in Syria whom the world can do business with - He gave up half the country to the opposition, but Assad's pragmatism is a relief. His cooperative attitude comes while the West in utter confusion over Syria.

To day or not to day #86: Values ​​embedded in remuneration policy is better than maximizing CEO rewards - On 24 November, a referendum was held in Switzerland on maximizing the salary of the CEO of a company at 12 times the salary of the lowest paid worker. Many Swiss have had enough of the increasing salaries of top managers and leaving the the lower paid right behind.

To day or not to day #85: Crisis caves the position of the central banks - Strong euro reflects strength of ECB. The relationships in the global currency war are largely determined by the policies of central banks. The political influence on monetary policy is increasing worldwide.

Or not to day to day # 83: Smart Cities – The Smart City is a keeper. Technological innovation continues unabated. Big data and the “Internet of Things” are unstoppable. A smart city knows how to optimally organize the connection between the collective system and the individual.

To day or not to day #82: Stop wasting with the Floriades: build the Markerwaard polder for new agricultural and horticultural land.
Put the Netherlands back on the map as a producer of agricultural and horticultural products. Stop the attack on the agricultural area and even extends that.

To day or not to day #81: Let people pay for their own mistakes - Living dangerously puts brakes on risks. We take more risks after a numerical prediction. The predictors are rarely harmed, but it is better to know what he has done or will do. He then is the first to suffer damage. People who deal with risks should run their own risk.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday 5 January 2013, Essay by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a former stockbroker, professor of risk management at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and author of Anti Fragile: Things That Gain From Disorder.

To day or not to day #80: People can not and will not live in a completely free market society - we are moral beings who can and want to be able to establish a link between prices and morality. We want the prices that express something of 'fairness'. We can't and don't want to live in a society where salaries are determined by nothing other then supply and demand.

Or not to day to day # 77: Governing parties must allow the voter discontent in the political debate - The annual budget for 2014 has been rescued, but the crisis in Dutch politics continues. Limit the number of parties and stop quibbling, so that the country can be really governed again.

To day or not to day #76: Capitalism is going to change dramatically again – The current crisis raises questions that go beyond whether we should cut expenses and how to proceed with the banks. It is time to wonder what the future of our economic system should look like.

To day or not today # 75: Lessons learned - illiquidity and fixed income investments. If savings are obtained on a large scale, there is a liquidity crisis. In 2008, when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, the world economy is facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions. Not only was confidence in banks away. The trust in some institutions that were closely intertwined with the banking sector - the shadow banks - melted like snow in the sun. Structures and products proved to be so, it was not possible to determine the complex risks and to determine who is responsible was.

To day or not to day #74: 10 lessons from the Dutch pension debate — Why actually retire? Let's turn work into a concept that you don't want to stop. Didn't Einstein say: "The definition of insanity is to continue to do the same thing and expect a different effect?" We need to think radically different about the traditional paradigms of pension and general capital planning to unlock a wonderful new world of possibilities.

To day or not to day # 72: The world is changing, and so is our view of the world. Behind the transitions in economy and society, a true cultural shift is going on. In the era of 'sustainsm', qualities as connectivity, locality, sharing, sustainability and human scale are central.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Monday 7 October 2013. Article by Michiel Schwarz, future thinker, cultural researcher and consultant. Co-author of "Sustainism is the New Modernism: A Cultural Manifesto for the Sustainist Era".

To day or not to day #71: For most of the world the deterioration of US-Russian relations depends of a power vacuum in the international order. Russia, along with China shows that it has the power to thwart U.S. plans through diplomatic pressure and a veto in the Security Council. There is not much more to it. Russia does not have enough power and influence and China's too busy with themselves.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday 5 October 2013. Essay by Ian Bremmer, founder and chair of the Eurasia Group and author of Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World

To day or not to day #70: City streets - Thanks to the crisis, urban development has shifted from expansion back into the existing city. This provides opportunities for the approach streets, but to decrease store vacancy the economy must increase again. Can the high street stand up against the peripheral retail and internet sales in the long run?

To day or not to day #69: Green brands fail to capture public attention. Many green branding efforts fail not because consumer demand is lacking but because branding efforts are superficial. In spite of the many years during which branding and advertising agencies have created substantial business units by promising endless riches to flow from green re-branding, many have learned that "green" branded products weren't getting off the shelves. Why? Have we reached and passed "peak green"?

Today or not to day #68: Better, best, neighbour - local authorities, the government, opinion makers: suddenly they all talk about 'neighbourhood'. In a time of austerity, a firm bond between neighbours functions as free social cement, they hope.

To day or not to day #67: Illiquid investments. Liquidity of investments in real estate limited partnerships, private equity and hedge funds are often limited and inherent in the nature of these investments. There are also investments with limited liquidity caused by exceptional market conditions. A policy on how to deal with these illiquid investments is important. By expected but especially unexpected limited liquidity of these investments, the feasibility jeopardized.

To day or not to day #66: The third Tuesday of September. Dutch 'Prince' s Day', the opening of the new parliamentary year, when the government budget is presented. One hand out of the sleeve is better than ten in the suitcase

Source: Fourth in a series of six cards that will be published during 2013 by Jubels printers, Amsterdam

To day or not to day #65: Hammering for speed requires increasingly an emergency brake – Mobility is necessary in society. Trains, cars, bikes and boats belong to everyday use. It turns out that things go wrong when speed, quantity become dominant. That is a mix of expectations, manipulations, conflicting interests, uncertainty, political meddling, detaillisme and macho behavior.

To day or not to day #64: The untouchables. The legislature is committed against a large number of sectors, to protect the citizens, with very strict measures to limit the power of the industry and protect the interests of consumers. Only in respect of the financial sector seems to stiffen the government. Most formulated norms in legislation are mainly open standards and free form formulated: advisory rules.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday 7 September 2013. Essay by Willem Landman, Professor Behavioral Finance/Investment to HvA, PhD student at Nyenrode and researcher at the Research Group CAREM

To day or not to day #63: I am a slave of your freedom - This year marks that 150 years ago slavery was abolished in the Dutch colonies. The summer issue of magazine De Boekenwereld is entitled "Slavery Imagined". This issue, the included collectible is made by Max Kisman.

To day or not to day #61: No interference in banking supervision. The main task of the European Central Bank (ECB) is to ensure price stability, without political interference as agreed in the Maastricht Treaty. Since the banking crisis in 2007, the ECB had to focus on financial stability to prevent banks collapsing. Now the ECB, by getting an additional task by monitoring the European banking system can get more grip on financial stability. Yet the monetary stability in jeopardy. With the banking supervision, political influence from the member states is on the prowl. Banking supervision requires great care.

To day or not to day #60. Rather a bungler than a coward: greed is necessary for our prosperity. "Greed works" was the motto of Gordon Gekko, the investor of the Oliver Stone film "Wall Street" and an icon of the hedonistic eighties. But after the financial crisis, money is gradually getting a bad reputation. Bankers only seem to hunt for bonuses and don't have an eye for their customers any longer. As far as Finance Minister De Jager concerns the profession soon is subjected to a financial Disciplinary Board. A well-known Dutch criminal lawyer appeared before the disciplinary committee of his own profession. He wants to be payed in cash, but then let the apprentice do the work. And many consider the grocer and plumber to have fallen prey to greed. They think only of their own financial gain, leaving the consumer out in the cold with rotting fruit and leaky faucets. An unsuspecting customer pays his bills anyway.

To day or not to day #59: Hezbollah's military intervention in Syria is a necessary but costly decision. The once celebrated "national resistance" is now showing its ugly sectarian face. Hezbollah's role in Syria in Lebanon puts old feuds on the edge. The West must not delude it selve that Hezbollah supporters will turn against their leaders now their sons return from Syria in body bags. On the contrary, the Lebanese Shiites bury their martyrs subdued. Their portraits are hung alongside those of their predecessors.

To day or not to day #58: The App Effect: All around us we see the cultural change that accompanies this app economy. To begin with the addiction to new media. This ranges from Wordfeud and social apps to business (mail) traffic. MIT professor Sherry Turkle, talks strikingly about "alone together" as she describes when people in each other company pick up their mobile actually are alone again. And when we are alone we pick up the same mobile to be together again with others. The studies on app-addiction are piling up. Some studies identify even craving behavior, a phenomenon that occurs among crack addicts and other drug users.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Weekend Essay on Saturday by Menno van Doorn, co-author of the book The App Effect, 28 January 2012

To day or not to day #56: The manager needs autonomy but also support in following the right path. An ethical organization recognizes that its managers are still and only on the way. How do we ensure that the probability of immoral behavior of managers decreases? The Kantian philosophy offers help. The supplement from Kantian perspective on thinking about the integrity of organizations looks very different than you would expect from a pessimist who talks about a radical desire for evil. You'll expect a sermon about personal responsibility and hell and damnation for those who are unable to take their responsibility. Kant gives that sermon, but also provides comfort and protection.
From his perspective, we are generally too optimistic about our autonomy, allowing the integrity policy to fail. There should be much more attention to the fact that, by definition, the presence of power and competition in organizations are stronger than outside. In particular these phenomena enforce the desire for evil and are an ideal excuse for self-deceiver (“I had to!”). Without support, the manager has no chance.

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad, Weekend Essay on Saturday by Wim Dubbink, professor of business ethics at the Tilburg University, 8 June 2013

To day or not to day #54: Two Policy Prescriptions for the Global Crisis. One thing that experts know, and that non-experts do not, is that they know less than non-experts think they do. Our economic expertise is limited in fundamental ways. Consider monetary and fiscal policies. Despite decades of careful data collection and mathematical and statistical research, on many large questions we have little more than rules of thumb. For example, we know that we should lower interest rates and inject liquidity to fight stagnation, and that we should raise policy rates and banks’ cash-reserve ratios to stifle inflation. Sometimes we rely on our judgment in combining interest-rate action with open-market operations. But the fact remains that our understanding of these policies’ mechanics is rudimentary.

To day or not to day #51: About the demise of Shell: A heady leadership is one of the articles of faith which the Anglo-Saxon business model is based upon. That makes Shell vulnerable. Everyone in the collection and judgement of information has to deal with a large number of cognitive and psychological limitations. Everyone has too much confidence in his ability to process information and to predict. Everyone overestimated his ability to judge and manage people. A heady leadership constitutes an attack on the quality of decision making and management.

To day or not to day #50: For Christians no more room. For Christians in the Middle East, the Arab Spring proved a harsh winter. This applies literally to thousands of Syrian Christians who are currently trying to survive in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Memories of the time that the Arab Christians enriched society will only live on in Europe and the U.S.

To day or not to day #49: The image was an illustration in the Financieele Dagblad of 19 january 2013 to an essay on the importance of questioning. Looking for a suitable image for my Beeld Taal exhibition poster it matches the idea of language (listening) and image (looking). Max Kisman Beeld Taal runs from 3 March until 16 June 2013 in GR-ID, Rabenhauptstraat 65 in Groningen. www.gr-id.nl

The science of economics is concerned with making predictions. Politicians and managers want to know the outcome of their policies and the risks they run. Also, economists use models that give the impression of the results being correct and then make decisions with sometimes disastrous consequences. Gradually it becomes clear that the individual behavior and the sum of it - the market - is unpredictable and therefore risks arising from market developments are unpredictable as well. This insight hardly gets through to the financial sector.

To day or not to day #44: Future is a matter of human choices. New growth patterns must save the world - What does the future hold for the world economy? Will the global standard of living rise, when today's poor countries get on equal footing with the richer countries through a technological pass ? Or will prosperity slip us through the fingers, because greed and corruption will force us to exhaust our vital resources and destroy the natural environment, on which human welfare depends? Humanity has no greater challenge than ensuring that the world may continue to exist in prosperity and that it will not be ruined.

To day or not to day #40: ‘FEED the world’ or ‘feed the WORLD’? By ensuring that people not only get calories, but also more nutrients, we can not only provide a longer life, but improve the quality of their lives as well. This year at Christmas it was 28 years ago that Bob Geldof and many pop icons of the '80s shook the collective conscience with their message 'Feed the World. Let them know it's Christmas time '. Despite the major challenges that still exist, Sir Bob - as he is called now - and his fellow organizers of 'Live Aid' can look back with some satisfaction at what has been achieved, not least thanks to their efforts. Since the days of Live Aid are dietary patterns around the world have significantly improved and the world proportionately counts fewer undernourished people, although their absolute number is rising. Weekend essay by Paul Polman of Unilever in Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday 29 December 2012.

To day or not to day #38: "Met het laatste oog op morgen" (With the last eye on tomorrow) contains 17 texts (in Dutch) with simple animated drawings and a jazzy soundtrack. It was my last contribution to Volkskrant Oog Volkskrant Oog was an online platform where artists, illustrators and designers presented their views on current affairs. It stopped in 2009. (1. No better future than tomorrow morning. 2. My homepage radiates at me when returning home. 3. A closed book usually won't be read. 4. A wisenose has to be runny
5. A good idea seems better in the dark. 6. If you know it you'd better forget it. 7. In clear weather the horizon is further away than in fog. 8. The position that she held did suggest however otherwise. 9. Not every fart stinks when it's a nice one. 10. Despite the fact that the ball is round you'd act like it. 11. Tomorrow I will take the cause a little lighter. 12. Even without glasses I don't see her in the dark. 13. Once in there you'll never figure out how you did enter. 14. The cuddle factor in bed is greater than that on the street. 15. The fish is sick but that doesn't bother the doctor. 16. When I walk on I haven't missed the train. 17. The patriotic pride flies lower than previously.)

To day or not to day #36: Steve Jobs. Innovation is making something out of nothing and foremost a process that can't be rationalized. It starts with a vision of "something" that is doesn't exist yet. Then it must be created. Perhaps the least understood quality of Steve Jobs is his creative interaction with reality. His "reality distortion field" was the success factor that led to his groundbreaking innovations. He was a swindler, fickle. How is it possible that such a shameless liar created the most valuable company in the world? Maikel Batelaan in FD Weekend Essay on Saturday, October 4, 2012.

To day or not to day #34: Graphic designer and artist Jan Bons died at the age of 94 in Amsterdam last week. To me he was one of the greatest inspirators in perfection of simplicity – "Straight line, warped. Painless full hit."

To day or not to day #32: Pek van Andel, Ezinger twist butt: "you 'll find something else than what you're looking for. Live drawing of guest #3 of 4 in 20 minutes during interviews by Wim Brands in the Roode Bioscoop, 21 October 2012.

To day or not to day #31: Peter "Respectable audience children of all ages" van Lindonk, creative thinker and previously a circus ring master at the Royal Carré Theater in Amsterdam has a collection of hundreds books about the circus.
Live drawing of guest #2 of 4 in 20 minutes during interviews by Wim Brands in the Roode Bioscoop, 21 October 2012.

To day or not to day #26: Campaigning for September 12th elections #19. SOPN (Soeverein Onafhankelijke Pioniers Nederland/Sovereign Independent Pioneers Netherlands): 100% Openness. The time for reform is now. An hilarious optical illusion.

To day or not to day #18: Campaigning for September 12th elections #11. DPK (Democratisch Politiek Keerpunt - Democtratic Political turning Point): Diphtheria Polio Pertussis. The set-your future-safe-injection of Hero Brinkman

To day or not to day #13: Campaigning for September 12th elections #6. SGP (Political Reformed Party): Action to the Word.
Katrijn: Had je me maar verkiesbaar moeten stellen! (Judy: You should have made me eligible!)